Over on Dharma Folk, I committed to increasing my writing to one post a month. I’m thinking of decreasing to the same rate over here—even though there is so much to write about!
My recent post “On White Women and Buddhism” generated a huge amount of traffic (thank you, Facebook), so considering that response, I plan to take up Barry Boyce’s invitation to write a letter to Buddhadharmaregarding their exclusionary practices. In case it doesn’t get published, you can be sure to find it here.
Mistaken assumptions about race and culture—and the assumptions underpinning those—comprise a series of topics I hope to take up. I’d love to address the misguided notion that racism is only the product of racists, the legless argument that poor white people don’t enjoy white privilege, or the cultural narrowmindedness of framing the development of Buddhism through an East-West divide. And that’s not to mention the regular fare.
I hope to somehow find the time to keep up the Asian Meter and to document the (regrettably ineluctable) instances when white Buddhists continue to ignore and exclude their Asian American brothers and sisters. There’s a history of Buddhists who’ve spoken out about the kind of discrimination and marginalization that I write about here, and this blog would be incomplete without a nod to their voices.
Beyond that, it’s worth reiterating some of the solutions that can be taken to addressing the issues I bring up on this blog. I’ve posted about these before, but it doesn’t hurt to pull them together again (and again). Examples of diversity and multiculturalism deserve posts as well—they certainly do exist in the community.
It’s quite a lot. This is no resolution by any means—I have little doubt that most of these pieces will be neglected. If anything, this post is a reminder to some future Angry Asian Buddhist of what was sitting around in my draft box on a cold Sunday in January 2011.